Arro: Zero in on the Best Buy for You

I tried to buy my mom a TV last Christmas. I spent literally days finding the best deal. Which had the best picture, the right features, and was in my price range? At the end of the ordeal, I never did buy her a television, and even now, my mom is staring at a picture of a cat hanging from a tree branch that I tried to convince her is just as good.

If only I’d had Arro back then, an app to narrow down your choices and take the guesswork out of major purchases. Can Arro point you in the right direction and get rid of all of that decision-making anxiety?

Take Aim at What You Want

Arro’s great if you need to buy something, especially something expensive, but you don’t know what to buy. There are five categories to choose from: electronics, personal care, baby, fitness and appliances. If you’re looking for something that falls outside of those buckets, Arro can’t help, but if you need a new TV or stroller, you’re all set. Tap the category that matches the thing you need to buy.

What are you looking for?

Choose the type of product you’re looking for on the next screen. Is it a makeup concealer in personal care or a camping stove in fitness? Once you’ve told Arrow what you need, it will ask you what’s most important to you. Do you value durability over ease of assembly? Comfort over portability? (These attributes will all change based on category; Arro won’t ask if you want a comfortable Blu-ray player!) Scroll to the bottom for any extra options, set your price range and tap find.

Arro will return your search results, with a top match highlighted. This is the product Arro thinks most closely fits your needs. There will be a star rating taken from user reviews, and you can see how much it’ll set you back. If you’re ready to pull the trigger, Arro also links you to an online retailer where you can go ahead and buy your new eyeshadow, crib or dishwasher. For big items that are difficult to ship, you can also search stores near you.

Tell Arro what you’re looking for, and it will find your best match.

If you’ve already got something in mind, you don’t have to go through the dog and pony show of listing out your must-haves. Instead, tap Buy Or Not at the bottom of the screen. Here you can search for anything you’re thinking of buying directly, as long as it fits in the five Arro categories. Anything Arro thinks is a good buy gets a green Yes screen, but if not, you’ll be met with a large, red No that leaves no room for misunderstanding.

Arro thinks I made a better choice and has a better suggestion for me.

Buy Or Not will then give you recommendations of better options similar to the potential purchase you’ve just input. Often, Arro will recommend a new model of the same thing or a better brand. Here, though, Arro isn’t taking into account any of the attributes you would have used in the product matchmaking feature above, nor does it keep its recommendations to a set price range, so you’ll want to take the Buy Or Not product list with a grain of salt.

Favorite Things to Buy

I’m not someone who rushes in, and I take some time before making big purchases, especially if I’m buying something big like a television. I’ll want to read lots of industry reviews in addition to all of the user reviews I can access on retailers’ sites through Arro. Luckily, I can save anything I’m really digging to my favorites in Arro and review it later. That way, if there is something I’m thinking of purchasing but I’m not ready to hit the Buy Now button, I can keep track of it and come back to it later when I have more information.

It’s not all electronics with Arro.

It would be great to separate out all of my favorite items in Arro by category. Currently, I have Blu-ray players, a dishwasher and some makeup in my favorites list, and they’re all jumbled up. I’d like to easily compare the Blu-ray players, but to get them into any coherent list, I need to manually reorganize everything. While that’s certainly doable, category listings would be awesome and would quickly rid my personal electronics comparison chart of moisturizing facial wipes.

Final Thoughts

Arro is really a neat app to have on hand. The first time I tried it out, I put in all my requirements for a camera and it spit out the newest model of the camera I already own. While it felt nice to be affirmed like that, told I had made the best choice a couple of years ago when I last bought a camera, I couldn’t help thinking Arro was spot on. I love my camera and haven’t had any complaints. Arro knew what it was doing.

If you’ve ever looked to buy something that you really knew very little about, it can be incredibly overwhelming. You know what’s important to you, but you don’t know which products have those features. And I bet you want it to be reliable, too. On top of all that, you have to search a ton of sites to get the best information. Instead of spending hours or days researching before you finally make a purchase, Arro takes care of all of that for you, giving you back a feeling of confidence when buying big (or even small) ticket items.